The BoyWhoLived and the Avatar
by SilentRemorse
Summary: When Fire Lord Zuko enters the Cave of Two Lovers in search of his banished mother, he finds the cave holds more than the legend tells, it holds a forgotten portal to Hogwarts! Now Team Avatar must enter a world entirely unknown to them to rescue Zuko.


_**The Boy-Who-Lived and the Avatar**_

By: Kristen Weeks

**Summary: **When Fire Lord Zuko enters the Cave of Two Lovers in search of his banished mother, he finds the cave holds more than the legend tells, it holds a forgotten portal to Hogwarts! Now Team Avatar must enter a world entirely unknown to them to rescue Zuko. But, unknown to them, an evil force from the new world has also discovered the portal. An AU cross-over of _Avatar: The Last Airbender _and _Harry Potter_.

**Timeline: **_(Avatar): _Takes place a year after Aang has defeated Fire Lord Ozai and peace has come to the world. _(Harry Potter): _Takes place during the events of _Goblet of Fire_.

**Chapter One: I Am Fire Lord Zuko**

When Zuko had entered the fabled Cave of Two Lovers, he had no idea what he was getting himself into. The entrance to the infamous cave had been cleared of the rubble from when Fire Nation soldiers caused a cave-in to trap Aang and his friends inside, and Zuko figured if any place was a good hiding place for a banished Fire Nation princess, this was the place. Aang and Katara had already told him how to get out of the cave: simply put out his lantern and follow the luminous crystals that lined the ceiling of the tunnel leading out.

He had entered without fear and without a party of people. The journey to find his mother was his journey and he had to take it alone. He would have liked to have brought his wife, Mai, but she was expecting their first child and was in no condition to travel. Lucky for Zuko, Mai was very understanding and knew how desperate he was to find his mother before the baby was born. She had called in Ty Lee to keep her company and protected while Zuko was gone, but had threatened him with certain doom if he didn't return for the birth.

The first day he hadn't found anybody in the cave except for wolf-bats and badger-moles, the same creatures Aang had told him about. He had brought rations for a few days' searching, but he found the walking had made him thirstier than he had anticipated and his water skin had run dry after the first day. He considered himself fortunate that he had discovered a spring that was glowing with a soft, gentle blue light that was much like the light Katara gave off when she was healing people. Zuko had paused for a moment, looking down at the blue water and wondering if it was safe, before he decided to take a chance and dipped his water skin into the water.

That turned out to be a mistake. He jumped back as tendrils of water rose up from the spring. It looked like the octopus form he had seen some of the waterbenders use. Zuko scrambled back from the spring as the tendrils started coming towards him. He let off a barrage of attacks at the water, but there was no stopping it. He let out a cry as he felt the icy coldness of one of the tendrils wrapping around his ankle. He shot a burst of flame at it and tried to twist away, but another two tendrils wrapped around his wrists, another going around his waist. It was happening so fast, so very fast, that all Zuko could do was scream as the tendrils yanked him down into the spring. He was going to drown. He would never see his mother, his wife, or his friends. His baby would never know its father. It would grow up without him there. That was the last thought he had before he was pulled down into the icy water and blacked out within a few minutes.

* * *

><p>"Do you really have to go?"<p>

Zuko turned at the sound of the voice and smiled when he saw Mai standing there, a hand resting on the belly that was just now starting to show. He walked over to her and laid his own hands on her stomach, feeling the soft flutters of their child moving around inside of his wife. He hadn't been married to Mai long before they had found out she was expecting, and the new Fire Lord was over the moon with happiness. His life was truly starting over again. He was married to his long-time love, they were expecting, and the Fire Nation was finally at peace with the rest of the world. Oh, there had been quite a few rough patches that made Zuko wonder if he was truly suited for the throne, but with the reassurances of his uncle and his friends, he found his own way through the hardships that being Fire Lord brought.

"Mai, I want to at least try to find her," he said, resting his forehead against hers, "I want her here for when the baby's born. I want it to know her and know there were people who could love in my family. I want her to see her grandchild and to see how the Fire Nation has grown since she was banished. But, mostly, I want to have her home."

"I know," Mai sighed softly, obviously not happy with it, "But you better be home before she's born or I'll have your head."

"She?" Zuko arched an eyebrow with a slight smile, "What makes you think it's going to be a she?" Personally, all Zuko wanted was a healthy baby. Boy or girl didn't matter to him.

"Because the world can't handle another you," Mai replied with a soft smile of her own, the response making Zuko laugh and hug his wife.

* * *

><p>"Who do you think he is? He sure is dressed funny…"<p>

The voice Zuko heard when he started to wake was very different than the voice he had been dreaming about. It was younger, and had a strange accent that he had never heard in any of the bending Nations. Not only that, but it sounded…innocent. Without the accent, it almost reminded him of Aang when the Avatar had been younger. Even though he was curious to see who was leaning over him, he didn't open his eyes, just took in his surroundings with his other senses.

He could feel the warm sun sinking into him, stoking the inner fire that was the source of his firebending. He could sense several people leaning over him; he could feel their eyes staring down at him as he lay on the grass. His clothes were soaked, but with the sun shining on him, he didn't feel cold. He could hear the wind in his ears and birds above him and the faint whisper of the trees in the breeze. He almost jerked when he felt something jab him in the side.

"Ron!" a female voice cried and there was a slight smacking sound, "You cannot be kicking people!"

"I was just checking to see if he was alive," the male voice he had heard a few moments ago answered, sounding hurt.

"He's breathing," yet another male voice, this one softer than the first, "Should we take him to the Infirmary?"

"We don't know who he is," the other male replied, "How do we know he's not a Death Eater?"

"He's too young," the female voice sounded annoyed now and Zuko almost smirked. They sounded a lot like Katara and Sokka. They must be siblings. "And he doesn't have the Dark Mark. But he does look like he's been in some kind of fight." Zuko's breath sucked in when he felt a light touch on the scarred part of his face. He couldn't stop the automatic reaction and his hand quickly grabbed the one on his face, squeezing tight as his eyes opened. Only Katara and Mai had touched the scar, so having some stranger touch it felt…wrong…

His eyes shot open, momentarily blinded by the sun before they focused on the three people above him. It was the female's hand he was holding. She wasn't so pretty, but she wasn't ugly, either. She had curly brown hair falling down past her shoulders. Her face was young, she couldn't be any older than Katara had been when he first met her, and her eyes were a large and expressive brown, wide with surprise. The boy standing behind her was tall and gangly with a rough mop of orange-red hair, a shade Zuko had never seen in any of the four bending Nations. His face was angular and he had freckles all over his skin, another thing he rarely saw in his travels. The third boy was shorter than the red-haired one, his own hair jet-black and messily-styled. His eyes were a bright green and framed by glasses and there was a small scar on his forehead in the shape of a lightning bolt. It almost made Zuko laugh at the thought of Uncle Iroh's lightning bolt attack left a scar like that.

The girl jerked her hand from his and scrambled back as the two boys pulled sticks out of the pockets of their strange black robes. The motion was threatening to Zuko, who jumped right into flight mode. He placed his hands on the grass and whirled his legs, kicking up into a circular motion and spreading a ring of fire around him. The movement left the young Fire Lord in a crouching position, his muscles tensed and ready to fight them if he had to.

Apparently his fire attack had caught them off guard, but it didn't last long. They were back up and coming towards him with their strange sticks out. Zuko's eyes narrowed as he looked at the three of them approaching him. He went to perform another firebending move when he felt his arms lock down against his sides and his legs snap together. Zuko let out a startled cry mixed with anger as he teetered for a few minutes, then fell over into the grass on his side. What the hell? Was Katara here? Why was she using her bloodbending on him?

"Dueling on Hogwart's grounds, you three should know better." This voice was older and sounded snide. To Zuko, it sounded a lot like Azula when she was talking about someone lower than herself, someone from one of the other bending Nations. Zuko found he could move his eyes and looked towards the source of the voice. The man was tall with a pale, narrow face and dark hair and eyes. He was holding one of those weird sticks in his hand, but he slowly lowered it and looked at the four of them.

"We weren't dueling, Professor Snape," the girl told him, "We found him next to the lake and we were about to take him to the Infirmary when he attacked us." The dark-haired man looked down at Zuko on the ground and waved the stick at him, causing the bound Fire Lord to lift off the ground and float in a standing position.

"It seems as though we have a trespasser," the man, Snape, said, "Who are you and how did you get into Hogwarts?" Zuko found then that he could move his mouth and he flexed his jaw a few times before he set it at an arrogant angle and looked the man directly in the eyes, his own golden ones narrowing.

"My name is Zuko, Fire Lord of the Fire Nation and son of Fire Lady Ursa," he told the man with a proud note in his voice, "I can't tell you how I got here because I don't know, myself. The last thing I remember is falling into a spring and the next thing I remember is waking up here." The man arched one of his eyebrows at Zuko.

"Granger, Potter, Weasley," he directed his speech towards the three children, "Go back to your common room and say nothing of this to anybody. I will take our guest to see the Headmaster." Zuko wanted to tell him how he wasn't going to take him anywhere and how he was going to release him or face his wrath, but it seemed as though whatever force that had been keeping him silent before was back again and all he could do was silently seethe as the strange man in black made him float behind him into the large stone castle.

* * *

><p>Dumbledore was silent as he looked at the young man sitting across his desk from him. He had been brought in by Professor Snape and had been rather belligerent about being captured and brought in. The Headmaster woefully had to restrain the young man after he used some strange wandless magic to shoot a stream of fire at both him and Professor Snape.<p>

Once he had been successfully restrained and Dumbledore had been told what Snape had managed to get off of him, he had ordered the Potions master to force a few drops of Veritaserum down his throat. The young man's story seemed to wild to be anything but fantasy. The clear potion would force him to tell the truth and then Dumbledore would discover the true reason why he was here.

"Who are you?" Dumbledore figured he'd best start with the basics. Discovering the young man's identity would certainly give the reason why he had appeared at Hogwarts. Oh, he didn't think he was a Death Eater. Not only was he missing the Dark Mark, but surely Voldemort would not want to waste a precious resource as a young man who could cast such powerful wandless magic on something as trivial as sneaking into Hogwarts.

"I am Fire Lord Zuko of the Fire Nation," came the automatic reply, the young man's golden-colored eyes narrowed at him and not at all surprised by what had come out, "I am the son of Fire Lord Ozai and Fire Lady Ursa, brother of Azula and husband of Fire Lady Mai." Now he seemed surprised that he had said so much. His eyes widened and his mouth dropped slightly, looking a little dumbfounded. This made Dumbledore's eyebrows rise. It was the same story he had told Snape. But it wasn't just that, it was also the fact that he seemed to not know what Snape had given him. Any wizard worth his salt knew what Veritaserum was. Last was the fact that a man as young as this one seemed to be was married in the first place.

"Why are you here?" he continued asking.

"I don't know," Zuko answered, now sounding angry as his tongue betrayed him, "I have never heard of nor seen a place like this. All I remember is falling into a spring in the cursed Cave of Two Lovers." A definite mistake, Zuko was realizing. He couldn't stop himself from answering this old man's questions. All he had needed was that clear liquid the man in black had given him and he had Zuko spilling everything.

"Do you know where you are?"

"No."

"This is Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, in England." Sharp blue eyes watched Zuko's scarred face, gauging his expression. He looked confused and angry, which was to be expected if he really didn't know what Veritaserum was. But the vague look he gave when he told him where he was…that was a surprise. It was as if telling the young man where he was meant nothing to him. The fact that he was in a highly-guarded and well-hidden school of magic didn't affect him at all.

"Where is this Fire Nation?" Dumbledore went on with his questions.

"It is an island chain to the West of the Earth Kingdom," Zuko's voice was now more clipped, as if he could stop the words coming from his mouth. He didn't need to give away the location of his nation! Least of all to some strange old man who reminded him of King Bumi…if Bumi were sane, of course.

"Where is the Earth Kingdom?"

That question made Zuko stare at the man in a dumbfounded way. What was he talking about? Weren't they in the Earth Kingdom? True, he had never seen a place like this on his travels, but surely he was still in the Earth Kingdom. It was the last place he remembered being. It was a huge continent and he hadn't been everywhere on it yet.

"This is the Earth Kingdom." It was the only truth Zuko's mind knew to answer with. Even the Veritaserum couldn't bring out a truth the subject didn't know. As far as Zuko was aware, they were in the Earth Kingdom.

"No, this is not the Earth Kingdom," Dumbledore told him, his voice softening slightly at the young man's obvious confusion, "This is England, or Great Britain." Zuko shook his head.

"You're lying," the voice from the young man growled softly, "I remember clearly getting pulled into the spring in the Cave of Two Lovers, which is in the Earth Kingdom. You can't have carried me completely out before I woke, so we must still be in the Earth Kingdom."

"No, my boy," Dumbledore's voice gentled more, "I'm afraid this isn't the Earth Kingdom or even your home country." He sat back as Zuko fell silent, his hands curling into fists as he processed the information this old man had given him. He had to be lying, he had to be! Where else could Zuko be? Without a flying bison, there were only so few places they could have taken Zuko before he woke. And, the last he heard, Aang was the only one with a flying bison.

The Headmaster looked calmly at Zuko. It was more obvious than before that this young man was a lost traveler. Of course, how he got here was a bigger mystery. He'd have to question Hermione, Harry, and Ron about where and how they had found him, but Snape had reported that he had found them fighting by the lake. Maybe this spring he was talking about was some sort of portal to their world, the lake in particular. Of course, now came the problem of how to send him back. Surely his family would be missing him. That and Dumbledore couldn't risk Voldemort finding out about the young man. His magic might be different from theirs, but it was powerful and could easily be used as a weapon.

"Severus," Dumbledore looked at Snape, "Go and fetch me Miss Granger, Mr. Potter, and Mr. Weasley, please." Snape looked surprised, but didn't argue, disappearing out the door to get the students. Now alone, Dumbledore turned his eyes to the man. "Tell me more about your world, Zuko."


End file.
